The Merits of Imitation

Imitation is often frowned upon.  We seem to equate imitation to being unoriginal.  This is an immature frame of thought–imitation is a vital tool.

We study the masters of a craft to learn what they know.  By making use of actions/techniques/strategies/behaviors that resemble another’s, we aren’t being unoriginal, we’re making use of a Truth they’ve already discovered. And so long as we do this in a way that adds value, we should aim to imitate the masters: we should stand on the shoulders of giants.

This is progress.  Imitation is a part of learning and is often a precursor to innovation.

By masters I don’t mean only dead men you’ll find  in history books, these are masters that happen to be documented.  A master could be anyone that knows more about something than anyone. And with billions of skills and nuances to be mastered, we encounter masters every day.

Reaching for perfection is a perpetual process; we can only asymptotically approach an ideal.

Reaching for progress is also an evolutionary process.

With this in mind, if you’re really good at something, we should find shards of others skilled in the art–traces of past progress that persist, that is, until the next paradigm is reached.

-Kevin
12.27.09